PERSONAL GROUPING OF 11 DECORATIONS AND DOCUMENTS BELONGING TO WORLD WAR II GERMAN LUFTWAFFE STUKA PILOT AND GERMAN CROSS IN GOLD WINNER LIEUTENANT HEINZ SCHMITT

In addition to the decorations, insignia and other personal effects returned to Lieutenant Schmitt's family by his Stuka Group after his death was a second model Luftwaffe dagger. Complete with hangers, portepee, wire wrapped orange handle and silvered dagger and scabbard fittings, this dagger is also equipped with a presentation blade with engraved inscriptions on both sides.

Below is a picture scan of the front side of the blade. I regret that the inferior capability of my scanner is adequate to address the light relection created by the two definitive ridges built into the dagger's blade design. To that end, while I apologize for this limitation, the viewer should note that the photos below do not even begin to do justice to this item in conveying its quality, age, condition or historical presence it commands when viewed in person.

The unit designation "10.(Pz)/St G 1" engraved on the front side of the blade is particularly of interest as it helps identify the probable date that this dagger was originally presented to Lieutentant Schmitt, which was in July 1943. This belief is based on the following:

Lieutenant Schmitt was awarded the German Cross in Gold in July 1943 at the young age of twenty (20), which would have been an occasion of significance in the little town he grew up in.

Panzerjaeger-Staffel 10 was a specially formed tank hunter Stuka formation that came into existence on 17 June 1943. It was equipped with the special Ju87G-1 "Kanonenvogel" (canon bird) made famous as an anti-tank weapon by Oberst Hans Ulrich Rudel.

10th Panzer Jaeger Staffel was disbanded in November 1943, with its personnel and equipment being absorbed into the newly formed Schlachtgeschwader 1. Predicated on the certainty of this action, in concert with Lieutenant Schmitt's winning of the German Cross in Gold on 19 July 1943, and his subsequent death on 26 September 1943, it can be reasonably deduced that the dagger in question must have been presented to Lieutenant Schmitt by his home town sometime during the sixty (60) day period beginning on 20 July 1943 and ending on 20 September 1943.

Further, given Oberst Rudel's intimate involvement with the development of tactics and operational procedures for this special unit, as well as his assignment to its parent unit during the July to November 1943 time frame involved, it is virtually inconceivable that Lieutenant Schmitt would not have been personally acquainted with Colonel Rudel.

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